AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
PRESS RELEASEAI Index: MDE 18/015/2003 (Public)
News Service No: 283
15 December 2003Lebanon: 27 people at risk of executionAmnesty International is strongly urging President Emile Lahoud of
Lebanon to use his prerogative to immediately commute the death sentences passed on 27
people.

While Amnesty International recognizes the right to bring to justice all those suspected
of involvement in criminal acts, the organization believes that executing these people
will contribute little to alleviating the suffering of the families of murder victims, for
whom it has the greatest sympathy.

The organization opposes the death penalty in all circumstances, considering it to be a
violation of the right to life and the right not to be subjected to cruel, inhuman or
degrading treatment or punishment. The finality and cruelty inherent in the death penalty
render it incompatible with norms of modern-day civilized behaviour and an inappropriate
and unacceptable response to crime.

"That Lebanon may be soon carrying out executions after a five-year moratorium - as
well as decades of war and occupation during which and tens of thousands of people lost
their lives - would be a serious blow to the spirit of reconciliation and opposition to
the death penalty which has recently pervaded the country," Amnesty International
said.

Between 1972 and 1994 one judicial execution was carried out. At least 13 people have been
executed since 1994, two of them publicly. However, no executions have taken place in
Lebanon since President Emile Lahoud took office in November 1998.